Motorsport: Restored classic ready to thrill again

By BOB PEARCE

The Maybach Special, winner of the 1954 Ardmore Grand Prix, is coming from Australia to race at the Historic Car Club's Easter meeting at Pukekohe.

This most successful Australian special was built around a German scout-car engine from World War II.

The engine was a six-cylinder, 4.2-litre overhead cam configuration and was raced by Stan Jones, father of Formula One champion Alan Jones.

Stan Jones won that first New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore against a field that included two Cooper Bristols and Englishman Ken Wharton in the V16 BRM.

Jones was also up against the cream of the local competition, so his win was even more satisfying for the Down Under special builders.

The grand prix drew 70,000 spectators and a big field, which was to confuse the lap scorers and leave the result in doubt until a couple of protests had been settled.

The final result gave Jones the win from Wharton and Australian Tony Gaze in a HWM-Alta.

Fourth was Englishman Horace Gould in a Cooper Bristol, fifth, and first New Zealander, was Ron Roycroft in an Alfa Romeo, and sixth was future Formula One champion Jack Brabham in a Cooper Bristol.

The winning car, now owned by Bob Harborow from Melbourne, has been beautifully restored and showed its paces at an Australian Grand Prix meeting.

The Maybach name has been back in the news. German manufacturer Mercedes has revived the title for one of its latest creations.

The Germans would probably be less than impressed that the special based on their engine had a Studebaker front suspension and a rear end derived from a Lancia.

Also coming from Australia for the Easter meeting are two Lola Formula 5000 cars and an Elfin CanAm sportscar.

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Greg Murphy got off to a flying start in the Australian V8 Supercar championship with second placing behind champion Mark Skaife in the Clipsal 500 on the streets of Adelaide. There were also promising efforts from a couple of other New Zealand drivers in an event marred by rain.

Craig Baird, in the championship debut of the new Peter Brock team, finished 12th in both races. Jason Richards, of Team Kiwi, was 15th and 14th to keep himself securely out of pre-qualifying.

Less fortunate was Simon Wills from the CAT team, who did not finish the first race and was 20th in the second.

But the biggest disappointment was Paul Radisich in the Dick Johnson Ford Falcon. He crashed heavily in qualifying and was taken to hospital for a check.

He was cleared as fit to drive, but the car rebuilt by the team did not finish either race and he will be hungry for points at the next round on the Phillip Island circuit near Melbourne on April 14.

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Skaife may have won the Clipsal 500 in the Holden Racing Team V8 Supercar but he didn't have the fastest race time on the 3.22km street circuit.

That distinction went to young Aucklander James Cressey, who clocked 1m 23.53s in his Formula Three car.

Skaife's best was 1m 23.72s, while John Bowe recorded 1m 25.79s in a Ferrari sports car in another support race.

Cressey, a former New Zealand Formula Ford champion, had sixth and second placings as he began his first full season in the open-wheeler class.

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One of the country's leading kart racers, Auckland teenager Wade Cunningham, will compete in the first round of the European Formula A championship in May.

It has been almost 20 years since a New Zealand kart driver competed in Europe on a regular basis and, although he has raced in Australia for the past three years, it will be something of a step into the unknown for the 17-year-old Aucklander.

This year's European championship has three rounds, the first in Germany on May 4, the second in Italy on July 28, and the third in Belgium on September 22.

Cunningham, who impressed the European teams with an emphatic win over the Japanese champion at the CIK Asia-Pacific SICA championship meeting at Suzuka in Japan, will continue his relationship with the Italian-based CRG team.

He will also dovetail his commitments to the works team to his long-standing ones with the Australian importer, for which he races in the Australian CIK championship.

That championship will again be fought out over four rounds, the first at Bolivar in South Australia on May 5, the second at Willowbank in Queensland in June, the third at Raleigh in New South Wales on August 25 and the fourth and final at Geelong in Victoria on October 27.

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Giancarlo Fisichella has been voted the Formula One driver most women would like to spend the night with, a survey in the German edition of Playboy magazine has revealed.

The 29-year-old Jordan driver received 31 per cent of the votes. Last year he finished 11th in the championship - on the track.

Next in line in the Playboy poll were Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher from the Williams team. World champion Michael Schumacher was 16th. His lap time was probably too quick.

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Five rounds have been confirmed for this year's national motocross championship, which begins in June. They are June 8-9, Blenheim; July 6-7, Huntly; August 10-11, Napier; September 14-15, Porirua; November 9-10, Taupo.